When it comes to color tablets, Barnes & Noble Inc. has tried competing with Apple and Amazon.com Inc. on quality and features. This holiday season, the retailer is trying something different — selling its year-old Nook tablets at a big discount.

As its rivals like Apple Inc. and Amazon introduce new versions of their iPad and Kindle Fire tablets, respectively, for the coming holiday season, Barnes & Noble is heavily discounting Nook HD tablets originally introduced in the fall of 2012. The starting price of its nine-inch Nook HD+ tablet has been slashed to $149 from its original price of $269, and its seven-inch Nook HD tablet falls to $129 from $199.

The only new device Barnes & Noble will sell during the holidays is an updated version of its Nook GlowLight black and white e-reader, priced at $119, $20 lower than last year’s version of the GlowLight. The new device is being unveiled on Wednesday.

The paucity of new devices follows a difficult year for the retailer, in which heavy losses at its Nook Media digital decision prompted the company in June to declare it was abandoning the manufacturing of color tablets and would instead strike deals with third-party manufacturers. Two weeks after making that announcement, the retailer’s chief executive, William Lynch, resigned.

Shortly afterwards, the color tablet decision was reversed. In August, Barnes & Noble president Michael Huseby told Wall Street analysts that the chain would continue to design and develop its own color devices.

The company won’t have one available for this holiday, Mr. Huseby said in an interview on Tuesday evening. He said the discounted Nook tablets represent a significant value in comparison to rival devices.

Apple’s new iPad and iPad mini sells for $499 and $399 respectively, for instance, while Amazon is already selling its new 7-inch Kindle HDX tablet for $229.

As for the GlowLight, Barnes & Noble is trying to learn from its mistake of last Christmas, when the company produced far more color tablets than it was able to sell. The retailer is “being prudent in terms of pacing and production and inventory” of the GlowLight, Mr. Huseby said.

The e-reader is important to Barnes & Noble, which hopes to sell e-books through its Nook store to Nook owners. Mr. Huseby said that GlowLight buyers tend to be the retailer’s biggest buyers of books because the device itself has a dedicated purpose: reading.

Will the line-up be enough assure that Santa delivers plenty of Nook devices this holiday season? “Consumers may be hesitant to invest more in Barnes & Noble’s ecosystem,” said Sarah Rotman Epps, an analyst with Forrester Research Inc. “They are putting out one nice new e-reader. But I don’t know if that’s enough to tell a bigger story about what Barnes & Noble will become.”